On April
28,1998 a demonstration of RAWA was attacked by Taliban in Peshawar. The
incident received wide coverage by the local press.
Many praised the courage of RAWA women to stand up to the Jihadi and Taliban
savages while a number of fundamentalist sympathisers expressed outrage
and hurled threats and abuse at RAWA for the affront to their "hallowed"
principles and fascist "pride".

Excerpts
from the pro-fundamentalist press, translated and given below, provide
mind-searing insight into the evil and ignorant mentality which makes the
Taliban, be it with a capital 'T' or a small 't'. The Taliban (literally:
religious students) dispensation pretending to be the government of Afghanistan
rely on the taliban for their power base and reserve fighting force.

Further
comment and explanation on the following excerpts from cheap attacks by
Taliban is superfluous.

Maulawi Mo'azen:
This [women's] group is a flunky of the infidels and wants to corrupt Islamic
society…. The blackest day in the history of Afghanistan was the day on
which women were granted freedom

Salafi Youth Movement:
The Taliban and the Mujahedin Must forestall such heathen forces

Islamic Movement:
The demonstration staged by women In front of thousands of [Muslim men]
is shameful

Peshawar (Wahdat
Reporter):

"The blackest
day in the history of Afghanistan was the day on which women were granted
freedom." This was stated by the deputy Chief Justice of Afghanistan
Supreme Court Maulawi Rafiullah Mo'azen in a statement denouncing the demonstration
brought out in Peshawar by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA). "The heathen world and the multitude of infidels
are out to obliterate Islam sooner or later in the name of women's freedom
and education, and they are spreading false allegations against the Islamic
Emirate [Taliban dispensation]. Maulawi Mo'azen added, "The women's
organisation called RAWA cannot represent Afghan women. This group is a
flunkey of the infidels and wants to corrupt Islamic society."

The Salafi Youth
Movement has also deplored the RAWA demonstration. "The Taliban and
the Mujahedin should set aside their differences and consider the interests
of the Islamic world, in particular of the Afghan people, and forestall
anti-Islamic movements" they stated. An Afghan businessman Abdul Sammi
Mohammadi also denounced the RAWA demonstration and remarked that the demonstration
was an affront to the traditions of Afghan women. The cultural in-charge
of the Islamic Youth Movement Mohammad Malyar said that the demonstration
organised by RAWA was a demonstration against Islam. He added that it is
shameful that an ungodly communist organisation should find the audacity
to stage a demonstration in support of its nefarious aims in an Islamic
country and in front of thousands of Muslim males.

Likewise, members
of the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan political organisation in a joint
statement took strong exception to the demonstration staged in Peshawar
by RAWA and stated that this association [RAWA] is a communist organisation
who are raising slogans against Islam, the Jihadis [Mujahedin] and the
Taliban on cue from their routed fellow-communists. The statement added
that it is a matter of high regret and consternation that nowadays sickly
inconsequential communists and their women are staging demonstrations against
Islam in the face of potent Muslims. The statement further added that Muslims
need to have himat and ghairat [be conjured to action for the sake of wounded
pride] and should forestall any such actions in the future.

The Afghan Islamic
Students' Organisation also expressed outrage at the demonstration staged
by RAWA and have labelled the demonstration as an act of defiance and communist
propaganda against Muslims. The Islamic students' organisation called on
the Afghan people not to endure such irreligious elements and to counter
their provocations with teeth-smashing measures.

The Ahl-i-Hadith
Youth Association also condemned the RAWA demonstration in strongest terms
and asserted that RAWA members are none other than former communists and
their women. "How deplorable that nowadays Afghan women resort to
irreligious actions in the presence of strangers and openly demonstrate
communist behaviour!" they lamented. "Muslims and faithful Muslim
youth in particular must raise their voices in chorus against RAWA and
prevent such people from taking even a step against Muslims", they
stated.

Wahdat
daily, April 29,1998

Taliban:
We will never grant freedom to women

The organisation
called RAWA is not an Afghan women's organisation but an agent of America

"Islam does
not allow women to demonstrate and shout slogans in the bazaars."

Obaidullah Ezzam:
We shall demonstrate in front of the American Consulate [in Peshawar] to
protest the injuries inflicted on taliban

In relation to
the demonstration staged in Peshawar yesterday against Jihadi groups and
the Taliban by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA), a number of Afghans have phoned or written to the Wahdat Daily
office in condemnation of the action and of the RAWA organisation.

The principal
of the Peshawar Jamia Emdad-al-Uloom religious seminary, Mohammad Zahir
Seddiq, accused RAWA of being an organisation of Jewish agents because
their activities are against the Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan]. Mohammad
Zahir Seddiq deplored the response of the Pakistani police towards the
taliban's [religious students] reaction to the RAWA demonstration….

Another talib
[religious student] named Mullah Habibullah Habibi told the Wahdat reporter
at the time the [RAWA] demonstration was underway "These women are
not Afghans but a black spot [of shame] on the honour of Afghan women."
He added, "It is most regrettable that in an Islamic society like
Pakistan the right to demonstrate is being given to such an un-Islamic
group." Another talib, Fazal-rabbi Hayatzadah, asserted indignantly
"The taliban will never grant freedom to Afghan women."….
A talib by the name of Obaidullah Ezzam said, "Islam does not
allow women to demonstrate and shout slogans in the bazaars." The
Jamia Emdad-al-Uloom religious seminary students voiced their determination
to demonstrate in front of the American Consulate [in Peshawar] to protest
the injuries inflicted on taliban.

Wahdat
daily, May 5, 1998

"The RAWA
demonstration was, on the basis of Islamic Sharia law, an unlawful action
against the luminous Islamic religion. Muslims should roll up their sleeves
to prevent such hen-brained women from perpetrating such actions and staging
demonstrations against Islam."

Maulawi
Shams-ur-Rahman, Islamic scholar,

Wahdat daily,
April 30,1998

"The
women participating in the RAWA demonstration have out-stepped the boundaries
of Islam."

"The rights and protection
accorded to women by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is unmatched in
any country of the world."

Peshawar, P.R.

Qari Abdul Rahim
Al-Farooqi has said in a press statement that "the demand for freedom
and women's rights put forward in the demonstration staged by the women's
organisation RAWA is totally illegitimate. The rights and protection accorded
to women by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is unmatched in any country
of the world." The statement added that all such outrages [RAWA demonstration,
etc.] are stage-managed by the United States and Jewish circles. "The
women who participated in the demonstration have out-stepped the boundaries
of Islam," he said, and added, "If such demonstrations are brought
out once again then these women will bear the responsibility for the consequences."
He also asked that those taliban who have been arrested by the police
[for their assault on the RAWA procession] should be freed immediately.